Sears.com: Yeah on Tools and Appliances, Nay on Everything Else
Written: Oct 15 '04 (Updated Oct 17 '04)
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Sears is one of America’s largest and best- known national retailers. Founded by Richard Sears in 1893, this giant is one of the most widely recognized names in the retail market with stores located all over the United States and in other countries as well.
It only makes sense, given the store’s popularity, that it would actively operate its own web service. The site is named, appropriately, Sears.com, and it offers many of the same products and services available at the physical store locations.
What Does This Service Offer?:
Sears.com offers merchandise for sale in the following categories:
Appliances
Automotive
Baby
Clothing
Computers/Electronics
Home
Gifts
Housewares
Jewelry
Lawn & Garden
Movies, Music, & Games
Personal Care
Sporting Goods
Tools
Toys
Besides these general categories, Sears.com also offers services like car rentals (with Avis), on- line purchasing of flowers, contact lenses and glasses, and other products and services similar to what you see at most Sears store locations.
Payment Methods/Shipping Charges:
Sears.com will accept any one of the Sears- brand credit cards, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, or Discover card to complete your purchase. The site will ship your merchandise using either UPS Ground, 2- day air, or overnight. The shipping charge is based on weight and speed of delivery, and it varies widely from one purchase to the next. However, the shipping rates charged by Sears.com are significant and they need to be considered before making an on- line purchase. A fifty pound item of merchandise, for example, shipped UPS ground, will cost you $20 additional. If you want the same item delivered overnight, it will cost an additional $110!
Customer Service:
Checking your order status, delivery options, and finding answers to some questions can be accomplished by logging into the web site. If you have a delivery question that cannot be answered on- line or you want to place your order by phone, you can call the toll- free line 800-349-4358.
Final Thoughts:
Sears is a retail store that most every person in the United States has shopped in at least once. It is no longer the king in retail, having been surpassed by Wal- Mart many years ago. But Sears is still a large operation, and its presence on the internet has helped to increase sales by a small amount, in spite of a lackluster web site and sub-par shopping deals.
Using this web service is easy enough. You do not have to setup an account to shop at Sears.com and make a purchase. All you need is a credit card and an e-mail address to complete your purchase. The pages of the site load pretty quickly and it doesn’t take long to find product information. When you lookup a category of product, you can sort by brand, product name, or price. This can help make the buying process a little bit simpler. Shipping is good, too, with merchandise arriving within the promised time frame.
On the bad side, though, Sears.com is sorely lacking in many areas. This, unfortunately, is common among retail store web sites. I guess I’m spoiled by Amazon.com and other on-line behemoths that offer more than one million items for sale- far more than any retail store location could ever dream. When I logon to a site like Sears.com, I expect to find most everything here that is available in the store. This, of course, is rarely the case. There just isn’t enough space on the web site to display so much merchandise. When I shopped here, looking for tools, I noticed that the selection was very good in that area. But when I pulled up other categories, like clothing, movies, music, & games, and most others, I noticed the selection is quite limited. In these areas, a shopper is better off visiting an actual store to find what he/she wants.
Another negative point to make is the shipping charges. Sears.com adds shipping charges to most every order, and these charges can have a huge impact on your final bill. The example I talked about earlier is a good illustration of this fact (50 pound item adding at least $20 to your total). Unless you’re purchasing something very large and/or if the convenience of shopping on- line outweighs the task of driving to a store, then the shipping charges will likely make the cost of your purchases too much to justify the on- line method. It’s true that Sears.com does offer a few incentives to entice on- line shoppers, like zero percent financing if you use Sears Gold Mastercard, Sears ChargePlus, or Sears Premier Cars; or the “Buy on- line, pick up at store” option that allows a purchase to be made on the internet with the merchandise waiting for you at the store for pickup, thereby eliminating shipping charges. These options are nice, and it can help to offset the cost of the shipping if you planned to finance in the first place or eliminate shipping completely if you pick up the merchandise yourself. But if you plan to pay off your credit card balance immediately, then you should think twice before you make an on- line purchase. And don’t even think about using the overnight delivery- the shipping charges are so great they will likely increase the cost of your purchase by 50 percent or more. If you need something that quickly, then just drive to the store and make the purchase. It will save you a lot of cash.
One other prejudice that I have against Sears.com is the simple fact that I really don’t like Sears products very much. Sears is one of the earliest retail stores I can remember visiting as a kid. My mom and dad, and grandparents, were frequent visitors to the shopping malls and every one of them had Sears as a main anchor store. Over the years, I grew to like Sears less and less when I realized how cheesy most of the company’s products were- especially the clothing. There are a few exceptions, like Craftsman brand tools and certain Kenmore appliances. But other than those, I don’t have much use for Sears and I’m certain that this prejudice is part of the reason for my disliking of the Sears.com web site. But even if I did like Sears a little more than I do, it would still be difficult to give the web site a recommendation. It’s adequate, but uninspiring and the costs of items are no better than what you would pay in a store and are often greater than the prices offered by competitors.
Overall, Sears.com is a retail site to skip. Unless you’re shopping for tools, like the Craftsman radial saw that I purchased, or something else in one of the few categories with good product selection, you will not likely find what you want in this web site. Add to that the high cost of shipping and you have all the makings of a web site to avoid. Save yourself some cash and go to the retail store instead. Or, better yet, avoid Sears completely and look elsewhere (either on- line or at a physical store) for your merchandise of choice. You will likely find what you want for a lower price at another retail establishment.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Craftsman Radial Saw
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